Effective prevention strategies in low HIV prevalence settings.

Countries with low HIV prevalence share a set of concerns and challenges regarding their responses to a potential HIV epidemic. Many of these countries also present an opportunity to avert large numbers of future HIV infections if appropriate prevention strategies are chosen and implemented early greatly reducing future HIV/AIDS-related costs to the country. The purpose of this publication is to identify those challenges and propose a prevention strategy that can maintain low HIV prevalence in the general population while reducing existing or preventing potential HIV sub-epidemics in population subgroups with substantial levels of risk behavior. Decisions on the strategic placement and targeting of prevention interventions are important to both international agencies and countries planning their prevention response. Both need to make difficult choices regarding geographic and population subgroups to ensure that resources are allocated efficiently. (excerpt)